What is sedimentation?

Sedimentation, borrowed from geology, serves as a concept-metaphor in phenomenology for the temporal layering of experience, habit, and meaning. It links static, genetic, and generative phenomenology, naming both the formation of a sedimented unconscious and the possibility of reactivation. This grounds accounts of historicity, tradition, and critique. The introduction examines Husserl, Merleau-Ponty, Ricœur, Gadamer, and Derrida, and notes later reinterpretations by Stiegler and in political theory. The special issue explores sedimentation across embodiment, language, narrative, institutions, surprise, gesture, and psychopathology, showing how it conditions continuity while enabling transformation.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Abstract This introduction to the special issue “What is Sedimentation? Consciousness, History, Language” clarifies the central role of sedimentation in Husserlian and post-Husserlian phenomenology and sets the stage for the essays that follow. Borrowed from geology, sedimentation functions in phenomenology as a concept-metaphor for the temporal layering of experience, habit, and meaning, linking static, genetic, and generative phenomenology. It names both the formation of a sedimented unconscious and the possibility of reactivation, thereby grounding phenomenological accounts of historicity, tradition, and critique. The introduction focuses on Husserl, Merleau-Ponty, Ricœur, Gadamer, and Derrida, while also indicating later reinterpretations in figures such as Stiegler and in political theory. It then presents the individual contributions, which explore sedimentation across embodiment, language, narrative, institutions, surprise, gesture, and psychopathology, showing how it conditions continuity while opening possibilities of transformation.